As the title indicates. I'd like to see if you will post something your sensei said that made an impact in your training. I'd prefer a personal story. It could be your current sensei or a past one. You can name the sensei or not, your choice....

Mine is a recent story relayed by my sensei Rick Potrekus.

He told of being in a tournament a long time ago, I believe he said it was his first. He was a little nervous before his first match and his teacher came up to him and said, "It's just class". He went on to win that match moving on to the next round. His teacher then walked up to him and said "Class isn't over yet". They team went on to win. I've grown to ponder that when I think of how far I've come in Uechi Ryu and realize that no matter where you are in your path, Class isn't over yet.

Norwood
Summer 1973
First night at Mattson Academy
Sensei, a tough looking Sandan cleared a few spaces in the front row for the newbies to stand.

He said to us something like " When someone sticks a knife in your ribs and asks for your wallet, forget everything you think you've learned here and slowly give him your wallet. Now let's get started."

NorwoodSummer 1973First night at Mattson AcademySensei, a tough looking Sandan cleared a few spaces in the front row for the newbies to stand.

He said to us something like " When someone sticks a knife in your ribs and asks for your wallet, forget everything you think you've learned here and slowly give him your wallet. Now let's get started."

My thinking on that hasn't really changed much, Kevin

When the knife is already pressing against the ribs, it is a bit too late to be a hero unless you really have to.

The question is how did we allow the bad guy to get so close and stick that blade against our ribs?

Kevin, is now a days he has a microscopic GPS tracking device implanted in his wallet... So he just hunts them down in an alley later on after dinner

Shinjo Sensei never used to say too much.. But he did always used to look at me and say " Nuee yaru Ham Bu Ga?!?" .. Which is Okinawan Hogan...
Roughly translated it means " If you keep running your mouth Steve, I'm going to slaughter your A$$!!!!!"

When being tested in Sanchin as a teenager, towards the end, when you thought your arms were going to fall off, and every muscle was burning, my Instructor, "Charlie" (Charles D. Shultz), would often say "Do you want to quit? Don't quit on me! When you think you're done, and it's really tough, that is when you really need to push yourself!" He'd also tell us not to cheat ourselves, if he thought we were slacking. Good times.

I've been thinking about this one for a long, long time. And you know what? I can't think of a single "wise" thing a sensei said that wasn't a story told by "the masters."

But I do have one good one that ... um ... made an impact on my training.

I first started karate circa January of 1972. I was a skinny kid who had skipped his last year in high school and had run a year of college cross country. I was burned out on track. It was such a lonely sport, and I was tired of being too damned skinny. So when this Japanese dude from W&M offered a karate class, well I jumped in with both feet.

The first style I studied was Nippon Shorin Ken. My instructor was Hiroshi Hamada, who at the time was just a lowly sandan. He was from the samurai class (technically) and his dad had thrown him in a monastery when he was a kid to straighten him out a bit. He came out as a martial genius, having trained with a who's who of Japanese karate masters of his era. But he still had an "edge."

Studying from him was a love-hate thing. If he liked you, at some point you were going to get the tar beat out of you. Maybe it would just be with a shinai if you were lucky. The worst insult would be for him to ignore you. That would mean he felt you weren't worth his time. It's a strange way to teach, but I value the experience of performing under fear. I do think there was a method to his madness. Outside of class he became a very likable and reasonable person. It was so strange to have him beat the tar out of you in class, and then walk by him outside the gym and see a big smile on his face. But that's how he did things.

After about a year and a half, I ended up taking an extended period of time off. I had a particularly difficult semester in college, and I put school first. Well most of the way through the semester, I got this phone call. It went something like this.

Mr. Glasheen? This is Sensei Hamada. How are you?

I haven't seen you in a while. What's up?

Back in Japan, there was this very promising student. A teacher worked very hard with him and he looked to be talented enough to be a great karateka. One day he just stopped coming to class. Well a month afterwards he was playing pinball in the pinball parlor, and suddenly noticed he was surrounded by his former classmates. And do you know what happened next? They beat the *@%! out of him.

Of course we don't do that in America, but... Would you like to come back to class?

I told him I would. I did come back to class, and participated enough to compete in that year's tournament. When I had my belt test a month later, I forgot one of my kata. I forgot it because basically I hadn't come to class enough. I was failed, and I deserved to fail. I was walking out of the gym with my head down, and my teacher passed me by in his car. "Come back 2 weeks from now, and test again." I did, I remembered my kata, and I passed my belt test.

I can honestly say that if Mr. Hamada hadn't given me that strange phone call about 38 years ago, I might have quit martial arts. But I didn't quit, and the rest is history.

Two men who indirectly helped shape my martial life - thanks to Steven King who originally studied Goju from the latter.

I can tell you're a California man.

- Billwo men who indirectly helped shape my martial life - thanks to Steven King who originally studied Goju from the latter.

I can tell you're a California man.

- Bill

Didn't know Steven King was a karate man, interesting. As for being from Cali, yes, I do live here now (and am curious to know how you know that unless you looked up my IP address or something ), but grew up in Connecticut. When my teacher heard those sayings above he was teaching in his dojo (New York Goju Kai) in Manhattan. He heard the first through his teacher(s), and teaches that way himself. "Just hit him" came from Yamaguchi, as an answer to questions like "what do I do if he blocks this, or what if his arm is in the way, or what if he turns..." There are a lot of great stories from those days.

Wrong Steven King. My teacher was one of the original mixed martial artists by the strict definition of the word. (First judo as a kid, then kyokushinkai, then several Goju instructors, then service as a Green Beret.) He left the service and became a chiropractor.

NEB wrote:

As for being from Cali, yes, I do live here now (and am curious to know how you know that unless you looked up my IP address or something )

I know it the same way I call the cashier at any store by her first name.

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